A Wisconsin member of Congress will introduce his “abolish ICE” legislation this week. Second District Democrat Mark Pocan says it’s time for something completely different. “ICE as it currently functions is broken, thanks to the president,” Pocan said Monday at his Madison office.
Pocan said Presdident Donald Trump has made Immigration and Customs Enforcement ineffecive, by using it as his “police force.” Pocan’s bill would dismantle ICE and “create a commission to provide recommendations to Congress” on how to “implement a humane immigration enforcement system . . . while transferring necessary functions to other agencies.”
“It’s the directives of the president that are the problem,” he said. “It’s not an admintrative knock at ICE. It’s the direction they’re taking, which is the president’s direction. Pocan said his bill doesn’t mean he supports “open borders,” and noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was created after 9/11 to combat domestic terrorism and crime in the U.S. interior.